Malice Towards Christ

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew chapter 22 verses 15 through 22.

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Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him along with the

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Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true, and you teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

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Tell us, then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

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But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.

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And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?

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And they said, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are

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Caesar, and to God the things that are God's. And when they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, let me get this out of the way right here at the beginning of the sermon.

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Is there anybody here who thinks it's a godly thing to not pay their taxes? Nope, I didn't think so.

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So we won't preach that sermon. So let me throw that one away. All right, got another one for you.

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All right. Y 'all remember Sesame Street? Loved Sesame Street when I was a kid.

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Cookie Monster, Grover, you know, and then Ert and Bernie and Pigeons and Mr.

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Snuffleupagus and Big Bird. It was just the best thing ever. And you'll note it's an educational television program.

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And one of the games that they would play on Sesame Street is that game where they would sing the song,

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One of these things is not like the other. One of these things is not the same, right?

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And then your job was to figure out which of these things didn't belong. Now in order to understand what's going on in our gospel text today, we're going to have to play that game.

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So if you would travel with me over to the book of Matthew chapter 12, we're going to take a look starting at, oh, go to 15.

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My apologies. Go to 15, starting at verse 29. And let's see if we can get our first data point, our first thing to compare, if you would.

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And here's what it says. Matthew 15, verse 29, Jesus went on from there, walked beside the

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Sea of Galilee. He went up on the mountain, sat down there. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others.

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And they put them at his feet and he healed them. So that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and listen to these words, and they glorified the

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God of Israel. Now that seems like an appropriate response to the miracles of Jesus.

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That's our first thing to look at. Let's compare that with Matthew chapter 12, starting at verse 8.

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In Matthew chapter 12, verse 8, we have Jesus in a synagogue. Think of it as the ancient world's equivalent of a church.

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They've gathered on the Sabbath in order to hear from the Torah or the prophets to worship and to pray.

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And here's what it says. Jesus went on from there, entered their synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

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And they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Hmm. A man with a withered hand.

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Years ago, I used to attend a church. There was a fellow in that church. His name was Chris. I got to see Chris this week.

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It was really nice to see him. But he doesn't have one withered hand. He has two. And he's always having to use his feet to write or to type or to do anything.

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He's become quite skilled in using his feet as replacements for his hands. And so in this particular synagogue that morning, there's a fellow with a withered hand.

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And you know, it kind of goes like this, right? We've seen these people with this condition before, right? And so they're concerned about a theological question, which kind of begs the question about this.

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What is a good work? What is a good work? If your understanding of good works, well, require you to keep laws that are made by man and those laws cause you to despise and not love your neighbor, chances are it's not a good work.

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So here, the Pharisees are obsessed with Sabbath keeping. They've written all these other laws and rules regarding Sabbath keeping, and Jesus is coming into conflict with their man -made rules.

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And so they think that Jesus is evil. He's up to no good because he's been known to heal on the

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Sabbath, and this is not good according to them. So is it lawful to heal on the

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Sabbath? They ask this question so they might accuse him. Sometimes questions are not safe.

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So Jesus said to them, which of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the

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Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?

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So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand.

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And so the man's hand, which is all withered up, he stretches it out and it's completely restored.

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It was healthy like the other. And listen to this response. The Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus how to destroy him.

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One of these things doesn't belong here. One of these things doesn't make sense.

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And it's important for us to understand what is driving that response. Because remember the crowds in Matthew 15, they glorified the

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God of Israel. Thank you Lord that you are healing the lame, giving voice to the mute, opening the ears of the deaf, giving sight to the blind.

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We thank and praise you Lord. Jesus heals a fellow who had a withered hand on the

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Sabbath. And their response is, we've got to figure out how to destroy

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Jesus. What is this? What is this?

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Romans 8, verse 5. I think this will help us a little bit. Romans 8, verse 5 says this, those who live according to the flesh, the flesh, the sarks, following the passions of your sinful nature.

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They set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the spirit, they set their minds on the things of the spirit.

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To set the mind on the flesh is death. To set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

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The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And there are those words, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

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And that's what's driving this. Now you'd think, Pharisees, Pharisees are religious fellows.

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They go to synagogue every single Saturday. They read the scriptures. What's the problem?

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They have their minds set on the flesh.

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They have made void the word of God by their man -made laws.

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They don't love God. In fact, the fact that they hate Jesus is proof positive that they do not love

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God. In fact, far from it. And if you want, turn with me over to John chapter 5.

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I'd like you to see an interesting exchange that Jesus has with the Pharisees.

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John chapter 5, and give me a second to get there. It was in my notes and then

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I missed it, okay. John chapter 5, here it is.

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I'll start at verse 30. I can do nothing of my own, Jesus says. As I hear,

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I judge. My judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

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If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. Therefore, there is another who bears witness about me.

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And I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth, talking about John the

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Baptist. Not that the testimony I received is from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

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He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

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But the testimony I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, they bear witness about me that the

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Father has sent me. And isn't that interesting? Here, Jesus, pointing to his miracles, notes that the miracles themselves, these were signs to the people that God the

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Father had sent him. And some seeing the miracles rejoiced and praised the

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Lord, but others, they were hostile and wanted to destroy Jesus. So the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.

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His voice you have never heard. His form you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you, he says.

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For you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

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And yet it is they that bear witness about me. And you refuse to come to me that you might have life.

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So note here, Jesus talking to the Pharisees, talking to the Jews who do not believe him.

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He is saying the they are these scriptures. They bear witness about me.

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And you will not come to me. You refuse the fault is with you. He goes on. He says, I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

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I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

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So how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only

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God? Do you do not think that I will accuse you, the Father, accuse you to the

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Father. There is one who will accuse you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed

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Moses, you would believe me, for Moses wrote about me.

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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? So you'll note here,

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Jesus is literally saying of these people, these people who persist in hostility to God, that despite all of their

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Bible reading, they've missed the whole point. The point is him. The point is

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Jesus. And so they don't believe in Jesus because they actually do not believe the word of God.

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They are religious. They go through the motions. But in going through the motions, they placard themselves.

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They seek glory from one another. And when you read the other accounts of the Pharisees written in the gospel text, these were fellows who loved money.

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They loved having the best seats at the best parties. They loved it when they would wear these rich, ornate robes traveling in town in their vestments.

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And people saying, Rabbi, Rabbi, how are you? Oh, I'm good. How are you? Yes, right? They were all about their own glory.

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And see, that's the problem. Galatians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul lays out for us what it means to walk by the

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Spirit as opposed to gratify the desires of the sinful flesh. Listen to this. Paul says in Galatians 5, 16,

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I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh, they are against, they are hostile, they are opposed to the

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Spirit. The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. Notice the conflict, this hostility that exists, right?

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For these are opposed to each other and they keep you from doing the things that you want to do, speaking to you as Christians.

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But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

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And here's the list. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

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Now you'll note here that enmity, strife, dissensions, divisions are in the same list as sexual immorality and things like orgies.

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These are all of the things together that make up the desires of the sinful flesh.

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And on any given day, most people really only suffer from a few of these, and some major in one or two of these and not the whole list, but you get the idea.

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You have to understand that the desires of the flesh, they are broad and fill up a whole spectrum of false, evil, wicked desires.

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And this is the problem. The Pharisees were those who followed their own sinful flesh.

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They sought glory in what they were doing for themselves.

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They loved money, and they were into all kinds of rivalries, dissensions, and divisions, and things like that.

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And they considered themselves blessed of God and looked down on those who were mute or crippled or blind or lame.

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And what did Jesus do? He healed them. He forgave them.

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He restored them. And by doing so, Jesus was obliterating the whole religious system.

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Remember the story of the star -bellied sneetches who were the best on the beaches?

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Remember that? It's a Dr. Seuss book. You might want to look it up. But the way the story goes, there were these creatures that were called sneetches.

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And there were some sneetches who had stars on thars and others that didn't.

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And what ended up happening was the ones that had stars, they were happy.

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They were proud. They were celebrated. And they looked down on those plain, ordinary sneetches who did not have stars on thars.

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And then Mr. Professor McMonkey McBean or somebody like that came along, and he had invented a machine.

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And he was happy to take the money from those who did not have stars on thars and gave them stars so that they were now all equal.

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All sneetches had stars. And see, that's what Jesus was doing in a very real way. By healing the outcast, forgiving the sinners, feasting and dining with them, he was showing the great love and mercy of God.

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And he was obliterating their whole religious system, which was nothing more than an elaborate

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Ponzi scheme designed to glorify the guy on top.

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Well, here in the synagogue, this poor fellow who had been born this way, who had a withered hand, well, as long as he would show up to the synagogue, they can sit there and say, well, he did something.

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He sinned in order to have that happen to him. So I'm more blessed than he is. And Jesus, offending them, not only breaks their rule about healing on the

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Sabbath, he's now restored him, and they can no longer look down on him. You see,

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Jesus' love upsets the apple carts in that way. So with that kind of all running around in our head, we've done the comparative work.

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We see what's going wrong here. We see the big difference between the reactions to what Jesus is saying and doing.

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We now come to our gospel text. And here's what it says. The Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.

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And you just have to sit there and go, what on earth do you guys have against Jesus? What evil has he done?

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He preaches the truth. He heals people. His signs and wonders that he performs testify that he's actually been sent by the

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Father. But these guys cannot bear Jesus. If Jesus is permitted to keep doing what he's doing, their whole

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Ponzi scheme is going to come crashing down. Revenue is going to decline. They may not receive the glory and honor they've received in the past in the marketplace.

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So they've decided they're going to plot to entangle him. And this is an important little bit of history. Pharisees and Herodians never got along.

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The Herodians were kind of like secularized Jews who totally betrayed their people by literally kind of going along with the whole

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Roman imperial system thing. These were guys who, rather than fight the

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Roman occupation, said, no, I think we're going to do fine here. Let's just go ahead and submit to them and we'll just do what the

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Romans do. And the Pharisees were totally opposed to that. And here you've got the Pharisees and the

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Herodians together going, if we let this guy do what he's doing, the whole system is shot.

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And so now you have total enemies working together as strange bedfellows to trap

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Jesus. And they thought they had come up with the perfect catch -22. This is just brilliant on their part strategically, right?

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Because there in Israel at the time under the Roman occupation was abject poverty.

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There was no middle class at this time, no middle class in Israel at this time. The reason why was quite simple.

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You were either part of the ruling class, the people who had favors from the government, or you were taxed into literally abject poverty by the whole tax system itself, which was just riddled with all kinds of graft and evil and people pocketing money.

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Oh, it was terrible. And so not only under the occupation of Rome, they have no government of their own to speak of, but the tax system has completely just wrecked the whole economy and people hate it.

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So if Jesus says, no, don't pay your taxes, the

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Herodians are on hand and they're loyal to Caesar, and they will have him arrested for treason and insurrection.

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But if Jesus says, pay your taxes, then the people will turn against Jesus and they'll hate him.

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It's perfect. The ultimate catch -22. We're going to get that Jesus this time, right?

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So they went there with the Herodians saying, teacher, oh, we know that you are true.

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And you teach the way of God truthfully, and you don't care about anyone's opinion. You're not swayed by appearances.

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Look at how they're buttering him up. I mean, all of these, I mean, they're giving him high praise and honor as if somehow

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Jesus is motivated by these things, as if somehow that's going to catch him off guard. You know, he's going to sit there and go, well, it's about time you guys finally started coming around.

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Come to think of it, yeah, everything I do say is true. Yeah, you know, that's totally what their expectation of Jesus was.

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But Jesus is having none of it. Jesus aware of their malice, malice.

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And there's the problem. That hostility toward God. Why do you put me to the test?

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Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. So you can hear some guy reach into his pocket and go, ting, whew, whew, whew, whew, whew, blip, catches it, right?

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I do my own sound effects. Okay. All right. So he holds the coin up.

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Whose likeness, whose image and inscription is this? They said,

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Caesar's. He said to them, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

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And to God the things that are God's and when they heard it they marveled and they left him and went their way

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Focusing on these words whose image whose likeness whose inscription is this that was

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Caesars on there, right? Now I want you to think back when it talks of we get the idea. All right, so we pay our taxes, right?

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Everybody gets that one. But what about that rendered the things? Rendered God the things that are God's let me help you with this one

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Whose likeness and inscription is this Genesis 1 26? God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the heavens of the

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Livestock over all of the earth over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own

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Image in the image of God. He created him male and female

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He created them Whose image was on the money

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Caesars Whose image were you made in and now you see the difference?

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Rendered the things that belong to Caesar to Caesar But you belong to God you were made in his image and Although this image has been marred by our sin

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Still God's image is on us We belong to him right to render the things to God the things that belong to him is to repent to be forgiven to bend the knee and Say Jesus is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father Rendered to God was

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God's that's you Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11

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Talks about how Christ broke down this hostility This hostility that keeps us from rendering to God the things that are

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God God's That would be our very lives Ephesians 2 11 says remember that at one time you

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Gentiles in the flesh who were called the Uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands

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Remember that you were at that time you were separated from Christ You were alienated from the

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Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise Having no hope without God in the world

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But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his own flesh the dividing wall

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Hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances So that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two

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So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross

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Therefore thereby killing the hostility So, you know, we were hostile to God, but Christ killed the hostility

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By dying for our sins a good way to think of it is is that if we were like coins

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Having lost the image of God having it being marred by our sin and obliterated to where you can't even really quite make out whose image that is

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Christ by his blood shed for us on that tree Takes that blood and applies it to us so that once again, you can see the image of God in our lives

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Colossians chapter 1 puts it this way starting at verse 18. Christ is the head of the body the church

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He is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that in everything he might be preeminent for in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and Through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross and You who are once alienated and hostile in mind just like the

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Pharisees Doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if Indeed you continue in the faith and are stable and steadfast

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Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven

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So our gospel text is one of these texts that reveals the hostility of sinful flesh

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The hostility that it has towards Christ towards God himself this is a hostility that each and every one of us has experienced and still

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Experiences to one degree or another Because our sinful flesh, I don't know if you've noticed this about yours, but I've noticed it about mine

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Really doesn't love God my sinful flesh really loves me and wants to look out for number one in all kinds of awful terrible ways and Your sinful flesh too is also hostile to God and we understand that this hostility has earned us an eternity in hell and so This text of ours highlights not the importance of paying taxes

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But the importance of recognizing whose you really are You were made by God you were made for God you were made in his image and you were made in his likeness and When you focus on the desires of your sinful flesh you become hostile to God as well

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How many times have you experienced somebody maybe not yourself? Another person who has decided to go down the rabbit hole of their own sin and When you confront them, what do they do put their fists up and say how dare you?

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How dare you? Who do you think you are? Usually first response to which you say

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I don't think I'm anybody I'm here because I love you And I'm telling you this because you're killing yourself

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And Maybe it's been you who went down that rabbit hole and somebody went down into that muck to pull you out of it

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The reality of the situation is is that that hostility to the truth that you've experienced either from somebody else or from yourself that is what our sinful flesh does and It is

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Christ himself who destroys that hostility He does it for us by taking all of our sin our hostility the sins we commit in our sinful passions of our flesh and He they are put on him

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And he bleeds and dies for our sins so that we as Christians can proclaim

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The good news of peace and reconciliation with God One of these things is not like the other

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One of these things doesn't belong The thing that doesn't belong is the one who is hostile to God and doesn't recognize that he himself

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Belongs to God and must render to God his own life His own desires

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His very being and soul Because God's image was stamped on him when he was made and formed in his mother's womb

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And that's the terrible aspect of sin. It forces us to not recognize that image

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Where we try to Rub it out and recreate it so that our image comes forward rather than God's So we must again repent repent of those sinful passions

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That make us hostile to God Repent and receive the peace that Christ gives us through his shed blood on the cross bear fruit in keeping with repentance and ever looking to that wonderful blood which will over and again take our image off of ourselves and restore

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The true image that we were made in the image of God And we look forward to the day

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When like newly minted coins The image of Christ is born on us perfectly and brilliantly

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So there will never again Be a day in eternity Where we ever question?

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Whose image we were made in in the name of Jesus. Amen If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsinger Lutheran Church You can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsinger Lutheran Church 159 50 470th

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Avenue, Northwest Oslo, Minnesota 567 4 4 and again that address is

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Kungsinger Lutheran Church 159 5 0 470th